Saratoga Springs Mayor Ronald Kim and the Saratoga Springs City Council are moving quickly and quietly to approve and construct a permanent 24/7 low barrier homeless shelter directly next to Saratoga Central Catholic School, a private middle and high school that has been operating at its current site since 1855.

THE HOMELESS ARE A VULNERABLE GROUP IN SARATOGA, BUT SO ARE THE CITY'S CHILDREN.

While we support a compassionate solution to provide shelter and rehabilitative resources to the largest homeless population in Saratoga County, we strongly oppose the proposed location of a low barrier homeless shelter next to a school. 

As a low barrier facility, Shelters of Saratoga will intentionally attract and admit individuals with no identification, will not perform background checks, will not screen for sobriety, and will permit pets. 

NO IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED. NO BACKGROUND CHECKS. NO SOBRIETY SCREENING.

Without performing background checks or even simply checking a person’s identification, Shelters of Saratoga would be unable to know if a person had current or prior criminal convictions, warrants, arrests, or sex offender registration status, and assess whether that individual would pose a safety risk not only to the staff and other people at the shelter, but also to the school children who attend school every day right across the street and use the open field directly adjacent to the shelter for outdoor school activities. Because an individual would be able to stay at the shelter for up to 9 consecutive days without any such investigation, the low barrier homeless shelter incentivizes short term stays to avoid background investigations, and can’t truly assist in setting the individuals on a long-term path to improving their life situations.

By being willfully blind to any issues or risks that a homeless individual could pose to the shelter and the school children next door, the City is thrusting the entire burden on to the entire community of Saratoga Springs to deal with the potential consequences resulting from the permanent location of a low barrier shelter. The City has extensive experience with the impacts that the City’s homeless issue has had on downtown, but has nevertheless decided to merely relocate those impacts to the doorstep of a school that has been educating children in the same location in the City for more than the last 150 years.

The issues surrounding sheltering and rehabilitating homeless individuals are undoubtedly multifaceted and must be dealt with in a safe location where the general public, especially children, are not negatively impacted. The City’s decision, however, will have an enormous negative impact on the SCC community because the school campus is accessible from all sides. The school’s only athletic field used for physical education instruction, sport practices, and outdoor time for the children shares a property line with the City-owned parcel at 5 William Street where the low barrier shelter will be built. (see below image)

 

 

In fact, the City is aware that security will be an issue and has discussed the installation of security fencing and additional surveillance cameras for the school. School grounds will need to be significantly altered and inconvenienced if the shelter location is approved. Turning a school into a fenced compound covered by constant surveillance, however, is not a reasonable solution to the nuanced problem that the City has created by this proposal.

HOW DOES A CITY REASONABLY PLAN A PERMANENT HOMELESS SHELTER NEXT TO A SCHOOL?

By approving this shelter to be constructed next to a school, the Mayor of Saratoga Springs and the City Council are doing a disservice to both the youth and homeless in our wonderful community. It is unwise and unfair for young students and homeless persons alike to be placed in close proximity and expected to thrive in their respective ways. Certainly, there must be other City-owned properties in Saratoga that would be better suited to accommodate a homeless shelter, rather than a property directly next to a school that has been a community pillar since the 1800s.

Indeed, prior proposals in the City for a permanent homeless shelter were understandably rejected for these same children safety concerns. For example, between 2016 and 2017, when Code Blue was temporarily located across from the Children’s Museum at Saratoga, public safety concern was enormous. And that was children visiting the Museum for only a few hours on occasional days for one winter across from a shelter that had a strict list of policies to which homeless guests must adhere. The safety concerns for children attending SCC every school day are exponentially greater, especially in light of the fact that the City has committed to a  permanent 24/7, year-round shelter where there are no standards to which individuals must comply.

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